FREE WORKSHEET: Identifying Your Ideal Customer

Lela Barker

how to identify your ideal customer

In a marketplace that’s flooded with choice, successful makers employ various techniques to rise above the noise. One of the most effective? Identifying their “ideal customer.” Your ideal customer is the customer you prefer to work with. It’s who you ultimately envision buying your product. It’s that customer who’s passed KYC verification through companies like Fully-Verified each and every time seamlessly. Spending some time carefully scrutinizing your target audience will not only save time and money, it will help ensure that all of those marketing arrows you’re launching land directly on their bullseye.

THE BENEFITS OF IDEAL CUSTOMER IDENTIFICATION

• It ensures that you don’t dilute your brand messaging or product offerings in an effort to appeal to everyone. If you do, then you virtually ensure that you actually appeal to no one.

• It reduces your marketing budget and saving time by identifying precisely where your  customers spend their time, so you can be right where they are.

• It fortifies your marketing efforts by making your “bait” even tastier for your key audience.

• It diminishes the likelihood that you’ll inadvertently mimic your competition. You’re going to find your own customer and your own voice!

THE TWO “BUCKETS” OF IDEAL CUSTOMER ANALYSIS

Demographics are quantifiable pieces of information about a specific slice of the population. Examples: gender, age, annual income, geographic location, marital status and ethnic background.

Psychographics are the personality traits, attitudes, lifestyles, hobbies and beliefs of an individual or group. These characteristics help define the motivations of your target audience and identify why they would be attracted to your company and products. Examples: goals + aspirations, purchasing triggers, personal values, fears, turnoffs.

As a small business, you need to employ laser focus in order to penetrate the market and gain traction. The exercise of drafting a “profile” of your single ideal customer empowers you to speak effectively and  directly to your target audience.  Don’t fret: this doesn’t mean that they’re the only customer you with whom you can and will work. Your company will inevitably attract customers that fall outside the parameters you’ve identified as ideal, but you’ll gladly process their orders too, right? This idea of marketing to one- just one single person who is is representative- ensures that you truly connect with your audience.

Click the image above to download my free "Target Market Of One" worksheet
Click the image above to download my free “Target Market Of One” worksheet

PUTTING MY WORKSHEET TO WORK

Meditate on both the demographics and psychographics your ideal customer. Jot your thoughts on paper. Once you identify your target audience, I want you zoom in reeeally close to envision a single customer within that audience. Print one copy of this worksheet and fill in all of the blanks that wind around the page with details about the life of the ideal customer that you’ve drafted.

Things like where they’d vacation if they could vacation anywhere, how they get to work, who they live with, their favorite book, etc. Then whip out your colored pencils or crayons and draw their likeness. Moving forward, all of your web copy, the styling of every product photo, each of your packaging decisions will be made with THIS one client in mind. Tack the completed worksheet by your computer and keep this single customer in mind as you expand your product offerings and marketing efforts.

You might be amazed at the powerful revelations you’ll have once you understand your customer at this cellular level! I’d love to hear them in the comments section if you’re up for sharing!

About the Author

Lela Barker

Lela Barker hails from the deep-and-dirty south (ATL, represent!), where she spends her days helping makers and product designers navigate the pitfalls of product pricing, brand development, and wholesale strategy. She launched her apothecary brand in 2003 and bootstrapped the hell out of that little business to cultivate a portfolio of 1500+ stockists worldwide, generating $12million in revenue and establishing successful distributorships in the Middle East, EU, Scandinavia, and South Korea. Lela is the keeper of a well-worn passport and the maker of the finest lemon meringue pie you’ve ever put in your mouth.

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